Punter and co left eating humble pie

RICKY Ponting had stared humiliation in the face for long enough
to walk off the ground in Fatullah yesterday without a spring in
his step or a fist pumped in the sign of victory.

With a captain's innings that took him yet another large step
away from impetuous youth, Ponting saved Australia's bacon - and
maybe the Test careers of some of the more cavalier souls in his
side who were unable to cope with the challenge thrown their way by
Bangladesh.

Having shot his mouth off in the past, laughingly dismissing at
Bangladesh as inadequate rivals for the might of Australia, Ponting
brushed the crumbs of humble pie from his shirt front between overs
and stayed determinedly focused on his retrieval mission.
Australia's most mortifying defeat had been averted.

In the end, it was probably a single spilled chance in Ponting's
unbeaten 118 - an ungainly top-edged hook and an equally ungainly
attempt at fine leg by fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza just before
lunch - that stood between the two sides. Had it stuck, the game
would have been back on the edge of a sharp knife with Jason
Gillespie and the Stuarts, Clark and MacGill, left to get the last
24 runs.

Beaten, Bangladesh still managed to look like winners. Or, if
not quite like winners, Test cricket's 10th-ranked side - with a
single victory to their name - had seen enough fear in the faces of
their supposedly invincible adversary to know they had arrived as
players and as a team.

They came out knowing they needed early wickets. Adam Gilchrist
obliged with a backyard swish. Warne came and went and left-arm
spinner Mohammad Rafique kept asking questions for which Australia
had few answers.

Bangladesh played with lightness and confidence, while Australia
ground their way relentlessly toward the 307 runs they needed for
victory. Bangladesh had smiles on their faces and fire in their
bellies. And why not: cowering at their feet sat the pride of
Australia.

What was it they'd said? Ponting was blunt enough last year.
Minnows, such as Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, should be off limits,
playing among themselves, until they were ready to be served up for
Test match competition.

To be fair, the Australian captain recanted and, to be fair a
second time, he was not alone. Former Australian captain Richie
Benaud called for Bangladesh's expulsion from Test ranks: "They are
simply not good enough to be pitched against proper Test match
countries."

Shane Warne, hit for 112 runs at a tick under six an over
without a single wicket in the first innings, was as blunt. "My
concern is that the brand of Test cricket is being devalued and
that is bad for the sport," he wrote in the Sunday Times.
"Easy runs and wickets are distorting the records."

If it wasn't the quality, it was the workload. We're playing too
much, bleated Australia's champs, and we're way too busy to play a
warm-up match. Left unsaid was "Why would we need to?".

Why indeed with Ponting, looking increasingly grizzled under his
fifth-day growth, strong enough to carry a few mates home.
Selectors' memories, notoriously selective, are inevitably kinder
in the rosy hue of victory. Still, neither Damien Martyn (4 and 7)
nor Michael Clarke (19 and 9) will sleep very well tonight.

But, while scapegoats mightn't be too hard to find, the first
Test is a better time to laud a new arrival. They'd already done it
- humbling Australia last June by five wickets. But that was a hit
and giggle. In a Test match, class will come out. And it did.
Bangladesh refused to be cowed and competed until the last
delivery.